a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by steve
steve  ·  4059 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Fuck You. I'm Gen Y, and I Don't Feel Special or Entitled, Just Poor.

    It's about the right to do what you want without being coerced into something else to pay for it.

You can do anything you want. Who is coercing you to do otherwise?





socialistfuck  ·  4059 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Monumental student debt with no chance of paying it.

steve  ·  4059 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm not sure that answers the question. Who is coercing you? and to do what?

Monumental student debt comes because you borrowed it.

socialistfuck  ·  4059 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's debt you have to take on in order to get a certificate that employers will accept. And you're coerced into doing a major that's possibly not what you want in order to avoid decades in poverty getting out from under that debt. I'm not sure how to be more clear.

steve  ·  4058 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I understand what you're trying to say, but coercion is the wrong word.

you don't HAVE to do any of that. No one has a gun to your head.

I'll agree that the system is broken. I won't agree that anyone is coercing you into anything. You may feel pressures from the market, or from your dreams, or from your expectations... but it's not coercion.

socialistfuck  ·  4056 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Coercion means more than someone having a gun to your head. Capitalism is coercive, for instance.

b_b  ·  4056 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Not coercive, incentivized. There's quite a difference, but sometimes incentives can make people do pretty awful things, too.

socialistfuck  ·  4056 days ago  ·  link  ·  

If you aren't able to do what you want because if you do you face poverty and things that come with it (e.g. homelessness, hunger, etc.) that's the definition of coercion.

steve  ·  4055 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think that based on your username, we may just have to agree to disagree - and that's ok.